The typical construction site includes a variety of valuable items, including equipment, tools and materials. These items are often expensive to replace or repair if damaged by vandals or stolen. In addition, the time required to repair or replace the items can cause a construction project to lag behind it projected schedule. This is a particular concern for construction projects governed by contracts that include penalties for delays, or where progress payments to the construction company are based upon completion of certain phases of the project.
Construction sites can also be hazardous environments for unauthorized personnel. For example, safety devices such as handrails may not yet be installed. Further, some unfinished structures may appear to be sturdy, but are in fact not yet capable of bearing the weight of a person. In addition, construction crews often leave large openings in walls and floors to facilitate the installation of subsystems such as wiring and plumbing. These openings can cause falls and serious injury to the uninitiated. Thus, there is a desire to secure the construction site to dissuade intruders.
Portable fencing is often used to secure a construction site. However, fences are easily breached by determined trespassers. One or more guards may be posted at the site, but this is an expensive solution, particularly if round-the-clock security is required. As an alternative, many construction sites include one or more surveillance cameras attached to a stationary object such as a telephone pole. However, the observable range of such cameras is necessarily fixed by the location of the pole. Even the addition of a servomotor mount to remotely reposition the camera may be unsatisfactory if the pole is not located near the area to be secured. In addition, the installation and wiring of such security cameras must be custom-configured to the peculiarities of the site, making installation time-consuming and difficult to move or disassemble when no longer needed.
Modern construction projects can be complex and involve personnel that are located remotely from the site, even in another state. Examples of such personnel include architects, material suppliers, construction supervisors, and the owner of the project. It is desirable for those personnel to be able to observe the construction site without having to be present at the site.
Surveillance systems are well-known in the art, such as the trailer-mounted surveillance system disclosed by Kaylor et al. in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2003/0025791. Such systems are typically employed to provide a means for monitoring a predetermined area. However, surveillance systems, particularly portable surveillance systems, lack the capability to provide security to the area. Thus, while illegal and destructive activities, such as trespassing, theft and vandalism, may be detected by surveillance systems, little can be done to prevent these activities from occurring or to defend against them.
Others have attempted to provide portable security systems to protect a defined area, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,850,180, 6,049,273 and 6,831,557 to Hess. Such systems monitor alarm inputs, such as motion sensors and wireless switches, and contact a remote control station via a telephone link if a security breach is detected. However, known portable security systems do not provide remote users with the capability of surveilling conditions at a secured site in real-time, obtaining stored monitoring data relating to the site, changing security and monitoring protocols at the site, and actively changing or controlling conditions at the site to deter and/or thwart unauthorized activities.
There is a need for a portable security system that can be easily transported to a construction site and set up, then easily moved about the site as needed. There is a further need for a portable security system that requires little oversight. There is a still further need for a portable security system to provide visual contact with the construction site by personnel located remotely. There is a yet further need for a portable security system which overcomes the drawbacks of surveillance systems. A further need exists for a portable security system that can detect activity in a particular portion of a field of view and react by automatically providing notification to a designated authority through wired or wireless communication means and providing remotely located personnel with the capability to intervene and deter and/or thwart unauthorized activities.